Raising a stink: Report shows smartphone screens are over 10 times dirtier than toilet seats
We've all heard stories about why spending too much time with your smartphone is bad news. Countless words have been written about why getting addicted to these pocket computers is a real problem. Over the last year or so, such calls have become so loud that even the biggest players in the industry have had to pay heed to them and announce digital wellness features that attempt to dissuade users from spending too much time with their smartphones.
But, if you've managed to ignore all such negativity and are still hell-bent on spending much of your waking hours glued to your smartphone screen, then sample this recent research which claims that smartphones are dirtier than your average toilet seat.
Dirtier than your toilet seat
For the purpose of the research, UK-based insurance provider Insurance2go swabbed three popular handsets, an iPhone, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy 8, as well as a toilet seat and flush, to test for yeast, mould and bacteria and worryingly found that all three phones "harboured at least some quantity of each type of substance".
Researchers found that a smartphone's screen, back button, lock button and home button are all more germ-infested than a toilet seat and flush.
Smartphone screen 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat
Scared already?
Don't be.
What's worse is that these researchers found that smartphone screens, in particular, were the most germ-infested and were found to have over 10 times more germs than a toilet seat with 254.9 units of infection present per cm2 – in contrast, a toilet and flush was found to have just 24 units.
Considering how we have to press our smartphones against our face multiple times a day, the knowledge of them being over 10 times more germ-infested than a toilet seat is quite unnerving, to say the least.
Need for cleaning your phone
The dirty state of affairs could partly be down to lack of awareness. While many people think a quick swipe on their clothes is good enough for ridding their phones of germs, the fact is that to really get rid of bacteria on your phone, a lot more needs to be done.
As Insurance2go notes, most residents in the UK rarely ever clean their phones. While 35 per cent of the sample base admitted to have never cleaned their phones with cleaning fluids or wipes, it was only one in 20 people who said that they cleaned their phones every six months.
Experts suggest to "use a headset when on the phone for a lengthy period of time and regularly wipe smartphones with an alcohol wipe to remove as much bacteria as possible before using it.” Alternatively, a lint-free cloth sprayed with some diluted alcohol solution could also be used to effectively banish bacteria, yeast and mould from a phone.
Sadly, these are all steps that very few ever take.
Is it only a Brit problem?
Though no similar research has been carried out in India, it would be surprising to find Indian smartphones faring any better than their Brit counterparts.
With 14 of the world's 15 most polluted cities in India, and 732 million people – the highest in the world – living without access to toilets, hygiene is a major issue for the over 1.2 billion strong population of the country and, as such, the odds are stacked heavily in favour of the results coming out the same – if not worse – than what were observed by the researchers in the UK.
Hence, to shrug off the findings of this research as simply a "Brit" problem would be ill-advised. Swachh Bharat might have more of a swachhta problem than imagined.